CRANBERRY, Pa. -- What sets defenseman Daniel Laatsch apart from other Penguins prospects is easy to spot at first glance.
At 6 foot 5, Laatsch is the tallest prospect the Penguins have. Heck, the only player taller in Pittsburgh's entire system is 6-foot-6 depth goaltender Magnus Hellberg.
Laatsch, a 21-year-old left-handed shot, was the Penguins' seventh-round pick in 2021 and is entering his junior season at the University of Wisconsin. He's still a couple of years away from turning pro -- let alone pushing for an NHL spot -- and remains somewhat of a project as a prospect. But the Penguins like what they've seen from Laatsch in the two years since he's been drafted, and that goes for beyond just what he brings in terms of size.
The Penguins have a number of offensive defensemen and two-way defensemen in the prospect pool, but Laatsch is only one of a couple real defensive defensemen that the Penguins currently have.
"I'm a very tall, tall defenseman," was how Laatsch described himself at the Penguins' development camp earlier this month. "It's more breaking out the puck, closing down plays, just defense first."
The member of the Penguins' development staff who primarily worked with Laatsch this season was Chris Butler, a former NHL defenseman who was in his first season as a Penguins development coach. The reports he had on Laatsch were extremely positive when it came to that defensive game.
"He's got one of the best defensive sticks for a kid his age in college hockey," said director of player development Tom Kostopoulos. "He's so good with his reach and his size. He's a really good defender that way, and he's getting better and better on the penalty kill."
Laatsch said that he was always tall for his age growing up. His weight's also always been slow to catch up, and so he's typically been pretty lanky. Listed by Wisconsin at 190 pounds now, he could definitely stand to put on some muscle to fill out that 6-foot-5 frame. As with most bigger prospects, his skating is also an area that will need to improve as he develops.
"I'm obviously very skinny," Laatsch said. "So putting on weight and strength is definitely something I'm focusing on. Along with that, it kind of makes your shot a little bit harder, it makes you a little bit harder to move in corners. It all stems from that. And also being taller, agility and foot speed is something I always need to work on."
Laatsch said that he's been progressively (but slowly) putting on the weight, and cited the tools he learned in development camp meetings in regards to things like nutrition and recovery as being helpful to that process of putting on weight. He was listed at 183 pounds at last summer's camp, a seven-pound difference from where Wisconsin has him now. As far as what the Penguins want to see him work on heading into next season, that weight remains priority No. 1.
"You know, he still needs to gain strength so he can be stronger in his battles," Kostopoulos said. "And just coming out of his comfort zone a little bit and playing on that edge will be the next step for him."
If you only ever watched Laatsch in these development camp scrimmages, you'd think he's got a pretty good offensive side to his game too. He opened the scoring in one of the three-on-three games in this year's tournament, and he had the championship game-winner (and the best goal of the day) in the four-on-four game last summer, cutting through the slot and ripping a shot that went bar-down.
In real games during the season, the points don't come as frequently. Last season Laatsch had one goal and six assists in 36 games, and as a freshman in 2021-22 he scored one goal and two assists in 28 games. Producing offensively is never going to be a top priority with Laatsch given his strengths defensively, but it's still something he hopes to add a bit more to his game moving forward.
"I'd love to add offense to my game," he said. "But I think knowing my role, it's defense first. Then using that to transition into offense is something that I'm still working on and try to incorporate in tiny little pieces at a time."
For now, Laatsch is also heading back to a Wisconsin team that will have a new look. The Badgers parted ways with head coach (and former Penguins assistant coach) Tony Granato in the spring. They brought in Make Hastings as the new bench boss, who turned around the Minnesota State program and produced nine future NHL players.
"It's a lot different," Laatsch said. "We have four new staff, a couple of transfers and then a big freshman class. The change has been going good so far. We should have a good team, we're bonding pretty good. It's a good group of guys. I'm excited to see what happens there."
